Marshal Manson
Marshal Manson Marshal Manson, real name Andrew Kerley (born May 19, 1998), Is an American songwriter, producer, singer, rapper, and online content creator from Marietta, Georgia. His music spans many genres, including Rap/Hip-Hop, Metal, Grunge, Alternative Rock, Dubstep and many more. Spanning over multiple projects and aliases, Manson's music has been heard by millions of people, and garnered a cult following in recent years after his breakout into the podcasting community of Youtube. Early and personal life Marshal Manson was born Andrew James Kerley on May 19, 1998 to Francesca Johnston and Jeffrey Kerley in Marietta, Georgia. He spent his early childhood being exposed to a wide array of music and live performances in the form of jam sessions played by his family. He took to music very early on, family members have confirmed that at ages as young as three or four he was making up songs that he would remember and repeat the exact same way, indicating that he was actually writing songs rather than singing random melodies. He taught himself basic skills on drums, guitar, and keyboard and knew that music was the only career he wanted to pursue Kerley grew up mostly isolated as a result of moving frequently throughout the state of Georgia, poor social skills stemming from mental health issues, and the loss of his father in 2007. He spent the ensuing isolation teaching himself new musical skills, and later credited this period as being a big inspiration for his sound and subject matter. By the time he was entering middle school he spent a lot of time trying to teach himself to rap because he saw it as the only way to express himself musically with the little resources he had, before stumbling on an article written about FL Studio. Upon discovering that he could create music that could be distributed with nothing but his computer he began right away spending all of his time trying to learn music production. Early career and Dubstep Around 2011, Kerley became obsessed with the then rising musical genre, Dubstep. He was inspired by artists such as Skrillex, Deadmau5, and Excision to make electronic music which he credits with being the main reason he started learning production. In 2011, at the age of 13 he started releasing music under the name Blueminthia, to little success. These songs can still be found online and are examples of Kerley learning production and how to create content for an online audience. Blueminthia did manage to capture some attention however and In January of 2014 he signed the "Jelly Doughnut EP" under Glowstam Records and received positive audience reviews after being promoted on the Dubstep promotional channel "Berzox". After deciding that his name was too difficult to pronounce or remember he elected to reinvent his persona. In late 2014 Kerley changed his name to Nerd Face and switched his style to a video game themed Dubstep and Glitchhop hybrid largely inspired by his longtime friend and creative collaborator "DJ Fuck The Cops", who at that time coined the genre "Nintendostep". Nerd face garnered much more attention and was featured on a series of promotional Dubstep channels such as Dubstep Nation and Green Leaf Tea Dubstep, as well as mixes racking up millions of plays. In December of 2013 Nerd Face was featured in the popular "Best Christmas Dubstep Mix" by DJ Deep Drama which currently sits at over two million views on Youtube. In 2014 Nerd Face was featured as the musical soundtrack for the online stream of the computer gaming festival "Polar Party". By 2016 Kerley had grown tired of creating Dubstep and found himself increasingly at odds with the direction of popular Electronic Music. He felt limited creatively and had largely moved away from the genre towards the end of his time as Nerd Face, and began to produce guitar instrumentals before going on an indefinite hiatus by the end of the year. The Formation of Marshal Manson While working at a McDonald's in Atlanta, Kerley had begun listening to a lot of music by Eminem and Marilyn Manson. He found that their messages, lyrical content, and images were something he strongly identified with. He thought he could do these things as well or better. While sitting at his desk he got what he describes as a "flash of information" and decided to create a new persona by the name of Marshal Manson, melding the names of the two artists. After saving up money he bought his first studio microphone and began using his knowledge of production from making dubstep to create rap music, and on January 15, 2017 he released his first rap single, a remix of Marilyn Manson's "Sweet Dreams". The remix was ambitious and attempted to meld the styles of his name sake into one song. The song was intended to be part of an EP called "Marilyn Mathers" which has since been seemingly cancelled. Salty Paul and The Drunken Peasants Podcast The Drunken Peasants was a podcast, of which Manson was a fan, was formed by "The Amazing Atheist" TJ Kirk and his partner Benpai. He watched for several years and became a fan of a running joke on the show known as "Salty Paul", which revolved around one of the shows hosts, Paulsego, being upset that a couch he ordered from IKEA never arrived. After listening to music played on the show's break segment featuring songs by Lazy J and Sex Twister, Manson got an idea to make a song centered around Salty Paul in a similar style. Manson wrote, recorded, and produced the song in one night and uploaded it to Youtube with the name "SALTY PAUL (A Drunken Peasants Fan Song)". The song was immediately noticed by the shows creators and shared on the next episode of the Drunken Peasants. Salty Paul went on to captivate the show's audience and made him a recognized figure within the community. It soon went on to get more views than an actual episode of the show, and reached outside of the community itself to a wider audience. He then went on to release more music for DP such as "Kane is Running for Mayor" which again centered around a joke on the show. It was also met with positive reception and further cemented his place within the community. When the show's original cast broke up in December of 2017 Manson released "RIP DP" which served as a farewell to the show and summarized several events from its run. Manson continues to work with the creators of the show, and in 2018 created the theme song for TJ Kirk's new podcast Deep Fat Fried and was met with mixed critical reception. In 2019 he covered Marilyn Mansons "We're From America" Which was released on Kirk's main Amazing Atheist Youtube channel as a collaboration between Kirk and himself. On July 21, 2018 Manson performed live at the first Deep Fat Fried meetup and live show in Hollywood, California. At the end of his set Manson performed Salty Paul and PaulsEgo, who is the subject of the song and a Deep Fat Fried cast member, joined him on stage to perform the song with him much to the delight of attending fans. I Hate Everyone On March 16, 2018 Manson released his first full length album "I Hate Everyone" on Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and Youtube. The album consists of 10 tracks and features an image of Manson crucified on a pentagram as the cover. The album was heavily promoted on the continued Drunken Peasants Podcast, now hosted by Benpai and seattle rapper Billy The Fridge, and Deep Fat Fried. It received overwhelmingly positive reception from audiences of both shows and served as an example of Manson's ability to be a serious song writer. The album addresses several issues from Manson's life and his perspective on people and American culture, and could be considered a loose concept album. While occasionally looking inward, the album mostly focuses on his disdain for other people and their way of life in a number of exaggerated themes that involve violence and satanism among other things. Some of this criticism is toward the reactions of regular people that judge individuals who think differently as a result of having a talented brain and/or personality, while another portion is toward himself for having these traits as they bring him pain in day to day situations because of that judgement. I Hate Everyone starts with "Failure", a song about an instance of abuse he suffered as a child, yet Manson remains vague on the exact details of that event. The rest of the album descends into a series of fantasies about murder, violence, and mayhem with themes of distrust for religion, the general public, and the government. The album wraps up with the song "Radio Life" which seems to be an acceptance of his situation and a refusal to fight it anymore. It has a much softer and more relaxed tone than the rest of the album and serves as a lighter ending point to such a heavy mix of negativity. I Hate Myself A few months after the release of I Hate Everyone, Manson confirmed that he had begun work on a second album called "I Hate Myself" which has yet to be released. The cover has been shown to the public and features Manson kneeling in front of a cross made of TV static and shooting himself in the head. One single "Aching" has been released ahead of the album and is a soft acoustic rock song showcasing Manson's classic taste for simplicity as heard in much of his early work. The exact release date for the album has not yet been revealed though Manson has confirmed he is still working on it.